The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

They're Just Bowling Now...

A row of townhouses? Yep. Just swoop in, buy 'em all and put up 7 stories of market-rate bullshit. Hey, people gotta live somewhere. And this side of Flatbush is starting to become as dense as Caledonia, the Q's name for the area south of Parkside between Ocean and, I dunno, East 17th or so. Or as a friend once called it "the canyons." Dense. Not unlike the local community board.

This new one - 160 Clarkson - is just a block from me. Back in the day, like, I dunno, last year, this would've pissed me off. But really, what are we to expect? We have a dumb-as-dirt councilman and near-zero political clout. Plus wackos suing everyone and their mothers if they don't tow the right activist line. Nothing affordable this time, by the way. Not even for middle-incomes.

If it weren't true, I surely couldn't make it up. They say gentrification is about white wealth pouring into a poor neighborhood. And we've all learned how true that is. But in the case of this neck of Flatbush, it's almost an inside job.

Here's what's coming down, for 75 feet and nearly 120 units.



Oh and if that weren't enough, you know the beautiful but neglected two story on the southeast corner of Clarkson and Rogers? Just bought for $20 million. This is one of the first properties I looked at a few years ago when a buddy and I were looking to find a location for a community center. Pretty sure that was the same year that John McCain was the bad guy. How little we knew how much worse it could get.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you Q. It saddened me to see what's going on in the neighborhood. I have a beautiful old victorian near me on Winthrop that was purchased by a developer. It will be gutted, and it will be replaced by 8 story building...shame.

babs said...

What a tangled real estate web we weave! These two sites are not unrelated: both are owned by the same group, nominally managed by Shmuel (Samuel) Wallerstein (he is the "manager" and authorized signer on most of the deeds and all of the underlying mortgages). He's patient too, having bought the five to-be-destroyed houses over four years, beginning with 160 Clarkson, which he got as an estate sale at the "bargain" price of only $1.225 million in May of 2016. 156 was the next to go, selling for $1.345 million in July of that year.

The next two years were a quiet period for this group, with no new sales until summer of last year, when 158 went for $2.138 million on June 28, followed swiftly by 154 for $2.050 million on July 25.

152 Clarkson was the last holdout, and final piece of this puzzle, but the owner finally gave in for $2.1 million on May 29.

Interestingly enough, the plan for the new building here was disapproved by the DOB in August. Does this mean there's still hope? I doubt it - it will no doubt be resubmitted and eventually get through. In the meantime, demolition of all five has been approved.

People may remember that 210 Clarkson was formerly owned by Albert Srour of Phat/Fat Albert fame (there used to be a Fat Albert store there too, until . He used some of that $20 million towards a building at 800 Avenue H, a 67-unit rental building near Brooklyn College, for which he paid $18 million in July.